Wedding
day
My
house was not very far from the cathedral catholic church, so when the first
bell rang in readiness for our wedding ceremony… my heart started beating
faster… It was a Saturday of the 23rd August… I was in room and the
house was filled with people, friends and family members… Marco and Hellen, my
Italian friends had their wedding a month ago and they came to attend our
wedding… I got tensed… women were singing outside, others were in the kitchen
busy cooking and my uncles and other elder family members from Alice’s side
were in the living room telling stories… I looked at my watch it was 08:10hrs
and the wedding ceremony was at 09:00hrs …I thought of calling Alice but I
realized she had her phone off… I felt weak in my knees… as I was walking
around the room as to control tension, I saw a small paper on bed and I picked
it; it was the paper we were using for reassesses; what to say and how to
respond in wedding mass… I started reassessing once more ‹‹I James Sinkala, I
take you Alice Nakonja as my……›› as I was memorizing my lines… There was a knock;
it was my grandmother passing me a phone… “It’s your wife Alice, she is too
overwhelmed”; said grandmother... I got the phone; Hello darling!!! “…hi James,
are you ready” she asked and her voice seemed like she was crying… Yes dear I’m
very ready, courage; I said. But my grandmother got the phone before we
finished talking… “Campwa mayo nomba ka…?” I heard my grandmother talking with her
while she was walking away from me… I went back in room. The second bells rang
from the church, this time I was a bit calm… later I hear a noise from outside,
I looked through the window it was a convoy of cars entering in the yard…
shortly uncle called and we joined the convoy and we left for church… I wanted
to look in Alice’s face but she was in a long veil that covered her face… She
looked very beautiful in her wedding dress; I would not wait to unveil her face…
By
the time our convoy arrived at the church, the car park was already filled,
only our car was allowed to enter up to the front of the church’s door. As
tradition Alice remained behind with her parents, I walked in and sat in
between my parents as well. The wedding mass was celebrated by Fr. Tiza a Zimbabwean
priest, by then he was the parish priest at cathedral catholic church. After
the introduction, Alice was brought in by her parents to where we were… We
stood up and I was in between Mummy and Daddy… When they reached us both my
in-law parents handed me Alice and we both preceded in front were we sat and
mass started…
During
mass as Fr. Tiza was giving a homily I was taken in thoughts… I was thinking
about how I shall kiss her when that part comes, I thought about the reception
and about the stress I went through in preparation for the all ceremony… etc. I
really got lost in these thoughts. When church patricians laughed after Fr.
Tiza said; «naked but not ashamed», he justified his saying as he continued
saying; “now that James and Alice have consecrated their marriage, they have own
the grace upon grace from God and this
grace is only given to those who are in a wedlock… if you are outside marriage,
you cannot enjoy this grace with a free conscience, for it is not given to you
from God… now James and Alice, shall enjoy it” people laughed and he ended his
homily like that.
After
mass as we were walking out, old men and women walked before wearing
tradition attire, they were singing and dancing, and then I saw Marco and Helen
taking pictures …
When journalist of the RAI NEWS PAPER first asked Alice about our future plans
and where we shall go for honeymoon… Alice first looked at me and smiled;
“about our future plans that remains between us and about honeymoon we shall be
in one of the villages in muchinga provinces” said Alice … another female
journalist, asked again “why have you chosen to have your honeymoons from the
village? Alice answered; “We need our marriage to have that back-ground, since
I and James, grew up from small town we would like to remind ourselves of that
back-ground for a month and then we shall processed our life in this city of
Ndola” … I looked at Alice and gave her a side smile, I never thought she was
serious that day we talked over that… I had no options before cameras and everyone
but to agree with Alice I then added by saying; Yes, we shall be in Nabwalya
village where we shall remain for a month… “Do you have a family in Nabwalya”
asked the Journalist. No, we shall just find a small house for rent…
Our honeymoon in Nabwalya Village
Nabwalya
chiumbo, is a small village found in Muchinga province to the far east of Mpika
district. Most of the people here are domestic farms, hurters and fishers in
Lwangwa River… By then there wasn’t any phone network and the language people
were using was Besa and none of us was speaking it at that time but we understood
because it is not very different from our language Bemba… We found a small
house for rent… In the mornings I used to go to a small stream to draw water,
while Alice could go to collect some fire-hoods.
In
Nabwalya by then only 30% of the population was Christian’s believers and 70%
were traditional believers… On Sundays after mass, the villager’s believers and
nonbelievers used to come to sell fish, and bush meats in private, fearing the
“wildlife
conservation”… We got acclimatized in no time and we came to learn that
people were very kind with us… we had a lot of experiences in this one month
with this people… A month later we went back to copper belt province.
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